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The Future of AMV Hell

I want to say today, in all seriousness, that AMV Hell is likely coming to an end soon. I don't like to speak in absolutes, because sometimes things change, and we never know what the future holds. Many will remember of course that AMV Hell 4 was intended to be the last one, but things somehow managed to keep going after that. I want to make it clear though, that I have no intention of making any further entries into the AMV Hell series, and no intention of creating other side projects like AMV Minis, or additional contests.

The Clip Compilation Contest will probably be the final thing that we see here, so I do strongly encourage everyone to contribute and to be a part of it. And with this contest, I really wanted to send a message to everyone who is a member of this community, and the newcomers as well. That is, AMV Hell is simply a concept, an idea, a genre. You don't need me here leading, directing, telling you what to do. You can stand on your own, and you can create great things. You can organize among yourselves and create your own projects. You can forge your own path forward.

I don't intend to hand over the reigns to anyone. AMV Hell, in the form that we know it, has run it's course. The internet is a completely different beast today than it was back in 2004 when I started all this. People have different expectations, and there is a lot more quality content out there competing for people's eyeballs. AMV Hell once filled an empty void, but that is no longer the case. There is now a lot of similar content out there for those who are looking to find it. The centralization of the internet and the oppressive nature of copyright also makes it hard to get this kind of content out there anymore. Back in the day, people would actually come to your website to look at stuff. But today, people expect everything to be consolidated into nice little walled gardens. You get your software from the app store, you get your videos from youtube, you talk to people on facebook and twitter. If it's not there, you don't have time for it. Youtube doesn't want your videos if they contain anyone else's copyrighted content. Doesn't matter if its fair use. Fair use is dead. I'm not really complaining about it or anything, but this is just the way things are.

I've not given this community the attention it needs for a long time now. And you all deserve better than that. Going forward, I would have even less time to dedicate to this... and that would simply be unacceptable. Back when I started this, I was just a loner college student with nothing but free time on my hands. But those days don't last forever. Now, I rarely ever have more than a couple of hours a week that I considered "free" time. I've always got something to do, something to be working on. A lot of things have been going on in my life--both good things and bad things, but mostly there are responsibilities and dreams that I have to place ahead of this site. I lost interest in anime years ago, and I've mostly even lost interest in editing and AMVs now as well. I'm neither the leader that you deserve, nor the one that you need right now.

I do plan to keep this website up for as long as possible, or as long as people hang around. Several months ago, I was able to move back to a much cheaper hosting plan due to continually decreasing site traffic, so financing the site is not really a problem anymore. I'll try to keep the torrents active so that all of the cool stuff that everyone has made over the years remains available.

But if you support the idea of AMV Hell--if its something important to you, it will still live on... through you.

Aw...what a downer. Thanks for the great ride, glad to have been apart of 6.66 and 7

wyrtt - "Also Sir Fluffykins; im sorry but you quite dumb. Steam is not video games seller. Steam is software seller. Please go and enducate yourself on that matter. You point is iinvalid. Vn without gameplay still software. And i like my software books colured and voiced"

BlackMonster - "Let me remind you its not cartoon you ****in stupid child its ANIME And i am 100X smarter than you will ever sayonara baka"

Not a surprise, main thing is "CHANGE OF TIMES" be it personal, technological or even social. All are part of this, Zarx is not the same person he was 10 years ago with what goes with that. The internet is not the same as it was 10 years ago and people are not the same as they were 10 years ago....**** ANIME is reeeeealy not the same as it was 10 years ago.

So much has changed and if this was Zarx's real time job pulling in the real cash then he would work harder on making this work with modern times. However it isnt and there is no point, Forums themselves have been dying for the last 10 years and more so the last 5 years. Hell I even gave up on my own still active homebase forums I modded from 2001 this year. So for Zarx to do this I totally understand.

I honestly don't see these forums lasting much longer. The only real activity nowadays is the chatbox (which is getting quieter and quieter....) and the image/video dump threads. Unless someone else basically starts doing what Zarx did in the beginning, this forum will die quickly.

It was a matter of time, but it's true: it's not like it was way back then.

If it has to live through someone else, it'll do. Though I'm not sure who'd be up to the task.

I'm grateful I was able to contribute to this at the end, and for your continued patronage. Rest assured, I don't stay here exclusively for the AMV Hell format, but for the community. Some of these folks need a kick or two in the head when it comes to actually acting straight, and I'm there to give it to them.

Thanks, and turn around every once in a while, eh? Gotta remember the legends.

I honestly don't see these forums lasting much longer. The only real activity nowadays is the chatbox (which is getting quieter and quieter....) and the image/video dump threads. Unless someone else basically starts doing what Zarx did in the beginning, this forum will die quickly.

Less than half of the people that come here actually watch the videos produced to begin with. You know for a fact that the kind of people that mostly post in the off topic threads are not the same people that comment on episodes of Minis.

*BLEEP*, in the country of *BLEEP*, famous land of *BLEEP* and *BLEEP*

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I remember stumbling across the AMV Hell series in the smack middle of my most awkward teenage years. I enjoyed the series so much that I eventually tried to sneak in as a member of this community. Since then, I've embarrassed myself countless of times throughout the years on these forums, whether through rare, botched attempts at amateur video editing or thoughtless, spur-of-the-moment posts. It's gotten to the point where skimming through older pages of most threads has become a guaranteed cringe-fest.

Despite all that, though, I've never once regretted being a part of this community, and have made it a point to stick to the bitter end. I think (or, rather, hope) I've personally grown throughout the years while on these forums, and met some pretty swell people in the process. And the only reason that I was able to be a part for a few years of this amazing backwater group of autistic people was thanks to this video series.

Thanks for the laughs, Zarx. Time to try and give something back. Guess I should dust off the video-editing equipment again...